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Milecastle 29

milecastle on Hadrian's Wall

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ15253380
Source-derived summary

Milecastle 29 (Tower Tye) was a milecastle of the Roman Hadrian's Wall. Its remains exist as a mutilated earth platform accentuated by deep robber-trenches around all sides, and are located beside the B6318 Military Road. Like Milecastles 9, 23, 25, and 51, a ditch has been identified around the Milecastle, and is still visible to a small extent. It has been postulated that this was as a result of the need for drainage on the site.

Construction

Milecastle 29 was a long-axis milecastle though the gateway type cannot be identified. Such milecastles were thought to have been constructed by the legio VI Victrix who were based in Eboracum (York), or by the legio XX Valeria Victrix who were based in Deva Victrix (Chester).

The milecastle was stated in 1840 as having dimensions of 63 feet (19 m) North-South by 58 feet (18 m) East-West with both southern corners (away from the wall) being rounded off.

The presence of a milecastle ditch is still evident, including a causeway crossing the ditch opposite the milecastle's south gate. A break in the north mound of the vallum and causeway over the vallum ditch (offset to the east) is also present. There is also disputable evidence of a causeway over the wall ditch opposite the milecastle's north gate.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Milecastle 29” is milecastle on Hadrian's Wall. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Milecastle, milecastle and Hadrian's, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1840—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Milecastle, milecastle and Hadrian's is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “milecastle on Hadrian's Wall” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15253380. Authority coordinates are 55.034, -2.175. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1840.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Milecastle 29” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.